Great expectations, Saturday?

[normanski]

Well that’s the crushing England victory as forecast by Sir Clive.

[morepork]

Well that’s the crushing England victory as forecast by Sir Clive.

Wales had a 3 man advantage and were in front.

[normanski]

I don’t think Gatland will be happy with the way the bench played today.

[Sandydragon]

Well that’s the crushing England victory as forecast by Sir Clive.

Wales had a 3 man advantage and were in front.

Yep shouldn’t have lost that. Some new caps showing a lack of composure at the end.

And our lineout was appalling.

[Sandydragon]

I don’t think Gatland will be happy with the way the bench played today.

Nope. Basham did alright when he came on. Parry went well for most of the match. Our scrum went wrong later on. Tshinza was a bit anonymous.

Mixed results on Kieran Williams.

[morepork]

Where was LRZ? You basically would have just had to pass him the ball and watch him burn people off on the break.

[Sourdust]

Cunning plan by England to get Farrell carded and turn "Toothless Eng Need Late Penalty To Beat Wales A" into "Gritty England Find A Way To Win"

Not bothered by the result, rather bothered at how generally crap we were. But IF Lake is okay then we got through without damage OR embarrassment, job done, have an orange.

[pompey-zebra]

I'd have taken that result before the start of the game, but somehow England have managed ( in their eyes at least) an actual and moral victory.

[MrK]

So....

Dee is now our starting #2
Thomas needs to start against SA at #3 with Domachowski #1
Jenkins > Beard, Davies > Beard, 2M Peter from RFC Tonypandy > Beard
Plumtree wasnt very good really
Reffel gave away too many penalties
Lydiate was "ok"

In the backs Tomos did ok today
Biggar will be our starting 10
K Williams showed some nice touches, Roberts looked quite good
Rogers did better than I thought, Adams was "okay", Williams looked threatening

[Sourdust]

Oh, and if (as looks likely) Van Poorvliet ISN'T okay, spare a thought for the poor guy. ****ing warm-ups...

[MrK]

I'd have taken that result before the start of the game, but somehow England have managed ( in their eyes at least) an actual and moral victory.

I really, really, really, cannot stand the whooping and a hollering that the England players bring to Rugby

Cretins

[MrK]

Where was LRZ? You basically would have just had to pass him the ball and watch him burn people off on the break.

Saving it for the day innit

[Son of Mathonwy]

Well after Williams's try we fucked literally everything up to let England back into that. But otherwise that was laughably bad from England - to sneak a victory with their best team against the players we picked? Pathetic. Nice to see Farrell getting the red he's deserved so many times.

Shame about our line out being totally, totally shit. And taking only 7 points from a 3 man advantage. Otherwise we were okay.

Plumtree was a bit of a liability other than the 50-22.
Something was obviously deeply wrong in the lineout - not sure where the blame falls for that.
I thought Owen Williams came off too soon - given this was a friendly Gatland went back to Biggar too soon.
Tompkins is classy, our best 12 so far.
Keiran Williams didn't really get enough time (but I expect will not be seen again).
Liam Williams was a rugby god, although even he fucked up once we were at the 'let's give the game back to England' stage.

The stats will be interesting.

[Sourdust]

I really, really, really, cannot stand the whooping and a hollering that the England players bring to Rugby

Cretins

If you'd told me this morning that they'd be going 15-man-Maro on the moon-howling after beating us by a single goal... I'd have enjoyed my breakfast.

[MrK]

Something was obviously deeply wrong in the lineout - not sure where the blame falls for that.

Im starting to think its Beard

[Sourdust]

I have to say, as one of K Williams' biggest advocates: Trying to run out of defence when it was never on just because we had men over, directly cost us the match. "Costing us the match" is not in itself a capital offence in these games, but still, someone should have a word.

[Son of Mathonwy]

I really, really, really, cannot stand the whooping and a hollering that the England players bring to Rugby

Cretins

If you'd told me this morning that they'd be going 15-man-Maro on the moon-howling after beating us by a single goal... I'd have enjoyed my breakfast.

Methinks they doth celebrate too much

[Son of Mathonwy]

I have to say, as one of K Williams' biggest advocates: Trying to run out of defence when it was never on just because we had men over, directly cost us the match. "Costing us the match" is not in itself a capital offence in these games, but still, someone should have a word.

Getting turned over then was his worst moment, but that was also down to the support. And our losing the game was the result of almost everything we did turning to shit once we got to 17 points . . . obviously all the line outs, several knock ons, I don't know how many scrum penalties. It was just like we were in a different reality then.

[Sourdust]

I have to say, as one of K Williams' biggest advocates: Trying to run out of defence when it was never on just because we had men over, directly cost us the match. "Costing us the match" is not in itself a capital offence in these games, but still, someone should have a word.

Getting turned over then was his worst moment, but that was also down to the support. And our losing the game was the result of almost everything we did turning to shit once we got to 17 points . . . obviously all the line outs, several knock ons, I don't know how many scrum penalties. It was just like we were in a different reality then.

Well i said before the game that Wales actually winning it might not be the best idea. They played that last 10 minutes as if they agreed with me!

[pompey-zebra]

I have to say, as one of K Williams' biggest advocates: Trying to run out of defence when it was never on just because we had men over, directly cost us the match. "Costing us the match" is not in itself a capital offence in these games, but still, someone should have a word.

Yes, just gathering tha ball cleanly and hoofing it up field probably would have won the game at that point. But still, I'd rather them fuck it up now than in the RWC.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Something was obviously deeply wrong in the lineout - not sure where the blame falls for that.

Im starting to think its Beard

I don't know. Obviously this England was an entirely different challenge than last week. If is is Beard then our forwards coach should sort it out (or turf him out). In the end it's down to Humphreys.

[Son of Mathonwy]

I have to say, as one of K Williams' biggest advocates: Trying to run out of defence when it was never on just because we had men over, directly cost us the match. "Costing us the match" is not in itself a capital offence in these games, but still, someone should have a word.

Getting turned over then was his worst moment, but that was also down to the support. And our losing the game was the result of almost everything we did turning to shit once we got to 17 points . . . obviously all the line outs, several knock ons, I don't know how many scrum penalties. It was just like we were in a different reality then.

Well i said before the game that Wales actually winning it might not be the best idea. They played that last 10 minutes as if they agreed with me!

That explains it - very cunning of Gatland.

[Puja]

Bizarre call by E to go for the 3 at the end, when the ref had explicitly said the next pen was a card. But the, can anyone explain how they got down there in the first place? Ref awarded pen advantage to W and then pinged them on the next breakdown 2s later. WTF?

Ref seems a little out of his depth. I couldn’t understand that decision.

Easy answer. Wales appealed that an English player made a tackle from an offside position. Ref said, "No, he got back onside." The touch judge piped up over the radio and the ref thought he was making a call that the player was offside and stuck his arm out for a second. The touch judge clarified that he was agreeing with the ref's original decision and the referee called "My mistake, no penalty" and brought his arm back in. You then infringed at the next breakdown and he gave the pen against you.

I thought he had an excellent game myself. Stuck to his word on giving cards after warnings, deservedly binned Arundell when a lot of refs would've bottled it, managed the scrum so much better than Berry did last week (low bar), and generally got most calls right.

Puja

[Sourdust]

I don't jump to a ref's defence a lot but they can't win at scrum time. If they go all one way, they've obviously been conned by the side who cheats best. If they spread the sanctions around, then they're "guessing".

[Sandydragon]

I have to say, as one of K Williams' biggest advocates: Trying to run out of defence when it was never on just because we had men over, directly cost us the match. "Costing us the match" is not in itself a capital offence in these games, but still, someone should have a word.

I’m fairness it was from a restart and his support was slow. Why was he taking that and not a forward?

Was screwed us today was a shocking lineout and I think we switched off when England lost three players and we
Scored our second try. England found a weapon and used it well.

Fair play to England for gettigg NHS some basics right at the death hit I don’t think Gatland will be too upset by that outcome given the starting lineup disparity.